The students are between 20 and 23 years old from different universities in Holland, France, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Ireland, Czech Republic, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina and will begin classes at UNEATLANTICO during this second academic year. There are 30 new international students joining the campus thanks to the Erasmus+ program, as well as from bilateral agreements.
The director of the International Relations Office, Juan Luis Vidal, and the Director of the Degrees in Applied Languages and Translation and Interpretation, Araceli Alonso, officially welcomed them to the European University of the Atlantic campus.
During the event, Paloma and Sara Rodríguez, two representatives of the ESN (Erasmus Student Network) association of Santander, also took part.
The participation from members of this group in the welcoming day for international students is based on the principle of Students Helping Students, which aims to favour and procure foreign students’ good integration during their stay in Cantabria.
For Vidal, enjoying an international exchange programme of this type is not only an opportunity from an academic point of view, “it is a personal experience that I recommend every student to undertake”.
And the data corroborates just that. According to the data published by the Erasmus+ Agency for the 2017 project (corresponding to the period up to 2019), 94% of students participating in this European programme display more tolerance and 88% improve their social skills.
Furthermore, the figures reveal that students participating in Erasmus+ are twice as likely to find a job after graduation, and 30% of those in an Erasmus+ placement are hired in the same company.
Araceli Alonso also invited the newcomers to “enjoy this experience to the fullest” telling them that, from now on, they were part of the UNEATLANTICO family. “Not just for a semester, but forever,” she added.
After the welcome meeting, the students visited the campus accompanied by the international student coordinator, Laura Martin, and Nicolás Llano, a student from the Degree in Advertising and Public Relations.
These are the newly arriving students, that as of today, will begin classes at UNEATLANTICO, with the academic institution, in the same way, having sent its remittance of 40 students to different universities in Germany, France, Poland, Turkey, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland or the Czech Republic.